A challenge in studying collaborative teamwork is the measurement of team cognition and the separation of it from aspects of individual cognition. Research on teamwork and cooperative behaviors often adopts an input-process-output framework (IPO). In this model the interdependent acts of individuals convert inputs such as the member and task characteristics to outcomes through behavioral activities directed toward organizing teamwork to achieve collective goals. These activities are termed team processes and include goal specification, strategy formulation, or systems and team monitoring.
Much of this teamwork research has made use of externalized events focusing on who is a member of the team, how they work together and what they do to perform their work. These studies often rely on post-hoc elicitation of the subjective relationships among pertinent concepts. There have been fewer studies looking at the “when” of teamwork interactions although the dynamics of team function are known to be complex with temporal models of teamwork suggesting that some processes transpire more frequently in action phases and others during transition periods. Closely related to team processes are dynamic states that characterize properties of the team that vary as a function of team context, inputs, processes and outcome. Emergent states describe cognitive, motivational and affective states of teams and can serve both as outputs and inputs in dynamic IPO models. When viewed this way, the focus shifts to when and how fast activities and change occur, and the variables move from amounts, dependencies and levels to pace, cycles and synchrony.